Description
Here we have another amazing SS photo album that came out of a world renowned collection we have been helping liquidate. This is a fantastic and incredibly rare photo album to an early member of the 1st SS-Totenkopfverband “Oberbayern.” This album has some incredible shots of the early training days at Dachau, photos of Adolf Hilter, the invasion of the Soviet Union/wrangling up Jewish citizens, ect. The albums main content is from the Battle of Demyansk “Demyansk Pocket.” There are several photos of armored troops and tanks, including several knocked out Soviet tanks as well as some very rare photos of the Tiger tank! Overall this is an actual Waffen- SS Totenkopf photo album, typically when we see TK albums it is always the early years, this example shows one key battle where most of these soldiers would be killed or captured! The Demyansk Pocket was the name given to the pocket of German troops encircled by the Red Army around Demyansk, south of Leningrad, during the Eastern Front Campaign. The pocket existed mainly from 8 February to 21 April 1942 and would be considered a huge defeat to the Germans, the SS-Totenkopf Division was nearly destroyed!
Note – The 3rd SS-Panzer Division “Totenkopf” was formed through the expansion of Kampfgruppe Eicke, a battle group named – in keeping with German military practice – after its commander, Theodor Eicke. Most of the battle group’s personnel had been transferred to the Waffen-SS from concentration camp guard units, which were known collectively as SS-Totenkopfverbände; others were former members of Selbstschutz: ethnic German militias that had committed war crimes in Poland.
This album is filled with 141 photos. Totenkopf related images like this are extremely hard to come by, especially to an actual combat man in the 3td Waffen-SS Panzer Division “Totenkopf.”
